Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants: PICUM launches children testimonies series
Hafidh is from Algeria. He arrived in France when he was 16 and lived with his brother. In France, children are not considered undocumented until they come of age. Nonetheless, Hafidh constantly lived in fear of being arrested, especially after turning 18. He was 21 when he wrote the below text, entitled ‘What I have lived through’:
“Since I have been arrested, anxiety and fear have become my everyday life. I am afraid to go out. I am anxious every morning when I get up to go to class because I am afraid of being deported, of waking up one day and thinking that I’m no longer among my own people. What frightens me most is not to live in my country but I am afraid to live far from my family, my brother, my sister, my father and my grandmother, the people who have given a meaning to my life.
Besides, since I have arrived in France, I have done everything to integrate, adapt and build up my life. But I would not have thought, that this country did not need me as much as I needed it, that this country was not attached to me as I am attached to it, because all my roots and all those I would never stop fighting for are in this country. And today, I will keep fighting, hoping that one day I will be regularised and able to live like all the others, fearless.”
Hafidh meanwhile got married and has become a father. He is no longer undocumented.
The Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) has launched its series of testimonies and stories of undocumented children and youth. PICUM will regularly publish stories and quotes in written form or through multimedia in the run-up to Universal Children’s day in November. The series aims to give a voice to children and young people as well as to their parents, caregivers and supporting organisations to show the realities undocumented children and youth face across Europe. PICUM will compile some of these stories and publish a booklet later this year.
Testimonies will be available in English, French and Spanish and also be shared through social media. We encourage you to follow and share them – as well as your own – using the hash tag #ShareYourStory
Hafidh’s story as well as the story of Kamel are available online. PICUM will add more stories to this page throughout the year.
